I felt like digging this up from the archives. It still sums up what I feel about todays colossal waste of time and money. The sad thing is - the amount of money wasted will have only increased.
Warning - somewhat strong language follows"Race that stops the nation." Give me a fucking break. You know what really pisses me off? The Melbourne fucking Cup. Commercial and vested interests have spent millions of dollars promoting a god-damned horse race as being some kind of special cultural event where the chardonnay set get to swan around pretending they look
gorgeous dahlings and
millions of people around Australia all of a sudden think they can pick the form of the horse that's going to win this
esteemed (for the stupid - I'm being sarcastic here) event.
And all for what???? So a bunch of dumb animals can be whipped around an oval by a bunch of nutbags while people who can't afford it
throw away their money, giving it to the people who brought you
The Fine Cotton Affair and the likes. Why do we do this??? Why do we celebrate this stupid event??? Why is it acceptable for people to stop work for the day and get pissed at "Melbourne Cup lunches". Why do we stop teaching at schools and universities and encourage children to start gambling by running
sweeps and the like??? Why do normal everyday people all of a sudden loose their shit and waste money betting on this ridiculous event???
Why celebrate the Melbourne Cup? Why rank it up there as such a special event in Australian society? Did anyone die to protect it?
No. Fight any wars to protect it?
No. Did it make any great medical advances to cure disease or poverty or human suffering?
No. Does it leave anything of any great lasting artistic merit?
No. Does it do anything of any merit do deserve such respect?
Fuck No.
What does it do? It increases the sale and consumption of alcohol. Always a good thing. It increases gambling. Did you know that over 20% of the poker machines in the world are in Australia. That's a per capita rate
5 times higher that the United States. It's great we hold gambling in such high regard. It increases the sale of
stupid fucking hats to the wanker Sydney/Melbourne glitteratti jet-set scum. Wonderful.....
Do you want to know how much money Australian's are going to waste betting on this years Melbourne Cup? Around
150 million dollars. That's right -
150 millions Dollars!!!. Do you know what the
second largest publicly listed company will be shortly in Queensland. The merged UniTAB-TAB. So much for the
smart state.
If people want to throw this money away - that's their choice. But why fucking celebrate it as a major Australian cultural event?? It's just sick. You know what a better use of all these wasted millions would be? Give it to cancer research. Give it to homeless shelters. Give it to youth suicide prevention schemes. Use it to encourage doctors into rural and regional areas. Use it for child immunisation. Use it to better fund schools. Use it to increase the number of Medicare Provider Numbers (yet another way the AMA helps to create the current shortage of doctors - nothing like a closed shop). Use it to do something
constructive to the Australian society. Don't waste it on a fucking horse race. A horse race no-one died for. A horse race that celebrates nothing but Australia's unhealthy obsession with gambling.
Ladies and Gentleman - this is a
Big Fat Fuck You to the Melbourne Cup. The disease that convulses a nation.
[Listening to: Grinspoon - New Detention - Gone Tomorrow (3:27)]
